Adult Shuttle Run!? The Story of Challenging the Physical Limits of Working Adults in a Factory

Hello everyone! I’m Shohei.
This column is written mainly based on my field experience.
After being on site for over 10 years, there are truly many things that happen. I’m writing about things I remember, as they come to mind.
Well, please read it casually, like “Oh, so that’s how other factories are.”

The Adult Shuttle Run

I’m going to talk about the adult shuttle run. This is not a dirty joke.
“Beep, beep, beeeep!”
Just hearing that sound still makes my thighs involuntarily start to twitch.
“Shuttle run”—those with trauma from their school days, please raise your hands. Probably countless hands have gone up on the other side of the screen.
That demonic fitness test program where you run between parallel lines 20 meters apart, chased by a hopeless “beep” sound. For me, who was on the basketball team, the shuttle run was a daily “appointment with death.”
“Now that I’m an adult, I can say goodbye to such suffering.”
…There was a time when I thought this way.

The working adult’s baptism, the factory version shuttle run is born

“Plant factory”—a nice-sounding cutting-edge facility. Little did I know I would experience the shuttle run hell for the second time in my life there.
One day, a senior colleague said to me with a daring smile:
“Today you’re in charge of transportation. It’s simple, just carry the lettuce.”
Knowing nothing, I nodded lightly. At this point, my legs were still laughing.
From the harvesting area to the trimming area, just 30 meters. I said “just,” but this “just” is the tricky part. Due to the structure making conveyor installation difficult, this section relied on “human power.” In other words, I would become a human conveyor.

Despair by the numbers

My mission was as follows:

• Carrying capacity: 50-60 heads of lettuce per round trip
• Trimming team processing speed: They process it in 40 seconds
• Required round trip pace: Once every 40 seconds
• Actual moving time: 20-30 seconds excluding preparation
• Duration: 3 hours
  “Well, if I jog a bit, it should be easy”
  As I thought this, beads of sweat were already forming on my forehead.

Countdown to hell

Hour 1: “Phew, I can do this. I’m confident in my physical fitness!” (Me putting on a brave face while drenched in sweat)
Hour 2: “It’s… hard… but… I’m still… okay…” (Me pushing the cart with labored breathing. My legs won’t listen)
Hour 2:30: “I… can’t… anymore…” (Me continuing to move while waving a white flag in my mind, feeling the cold stares of the trimming team)
My colleagues watch over me saying:
“Are you okay? Your face is turning blue.”
“I couldn’t move when I got home after doing this for the first time.”
“You should prepare for tomorrow’s muscle pain.”
Thanks, that’s not encouraging at all.

As I entered the third hour, my thoughts were:

• “The school shuttle run was child’s play.”
• “Was lettuce always this heavy?”
• “I don’t think I can climb stairs.”
• “Could this qualify as a workplace injury?”

The lesson and punchline

Eventually, this “lettuce marathon” was improved, and the pace became at least manageable enough to “walk” back and forth. My sacrifice was not in vain (probably).
I want to tell my school-self who thought “there couldn’t be a worse hell than the shuttle run”:
Various forms of “shuttle runs” await you in society.
But jokes aside, I learned something from this experience. That is the importance of “improving the workplace environment.” Sometimes we tend to accept inefficient hardships as “inevitable,” but things can change significantly with a little ingenuity.
…That said, even now when I hear a “beep” sound in the factory, I reflexively feel like I’m about to start running. Trauma is a fearsome thing.
Is there such an “adult shuttle run” in your workplace too?

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